Systems and methods for the real-time generation of in-game, locally accessible barrier-aware heatmaps

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for generating a performance heatmap that accounts for barriers, playable areas and non-playable areas are disclosed. The system applies a blur operation to a performance heatmap associated with a game map to generate a blurred heatmap, the heatmap having a plurality of pixels, where at least a portion of the pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics. A mask representative of a top down image of the game map is generated, where the mask defines first areas that are accessible to players and second areas that are not accessible to players. A data structure is defined having n×m elements, wherein each of the n×m elements has a weight associated therewith based on an association of the data structure and mask. The blurring operation is executed on the heatmap using the data structure.

CROSS-REFERENCE

The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/354,406, entitled “Systems and Methods for the Real-Time Generation of In-Game, Locally Accessible Heatmaps” and filed on Nov. 17, 2016 and relies on said application for priority. The aforementioned application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

The present specification is related generally to the field of gaming, animation and computer graphics. More specifically, the present specification is related to a method for automatically generating in-game heatmaps in video games that allow video game players to evaluate their performance in real time and that accurately represent barriers inaccessible to players, such as walls and objects, which may occur in complex game maps.

BACKGROUND

In many video games, a player may compete against another player either in person or via an online platform that integrates the play of multiple players through a network. Many online games offer leaderboards which allow a player to judge how a particular game play session compared against other game players. However, it is often difficult to compare the player's skill to another player's since many conventional leaderboards measure a level achieved or certain standard statistics, but may not consider the amount of time played to do so. Further, many players are driven by and desire to compete at all levels of game play. For example, a player may desire to not only be the player with the highest score but also to be the best player with a particular game weapon or accessory or a combination thereof.

Thus, the ability to evaluate their performance, at varying degrees of detail, in real-time is valuable for video game players, especially when playing competitive online multiplayer games. Simple performance metrics are often used to display basic statistics on performance. Examples of such metrics include the number of kills, kill/death ratio, scores, achievements, timings, and levels passed. The ability to display performance over a geographical map of a virtual game can add valuable information on performance at specific map engagement areas, map lanes and choke points. Spatial data like this can be displayed as a heatmap or colored overlay on the underlying 2D map. Video games however, are challenged to provide and manage such maps in-game and in near real-time, that is, as a player is engaged in a game play session.

One of the major challenges encountered by video game programs in providing detailed real time performance data for each player is the management of data of numerous players based on such non-standard statistics. Further, in online multiplayer games usually very little historical information about a player is available on the game client, such as a console, PC or mobile device. This is because such a feature is highly bandwidth and memory intensive, as it requires the player information to be loaded and saved between matches. Trying to store and manage large amounts of historical performance information is not feasible, as it would have to be uploaded each time a match is played. However, to provide a detailed heatmap, such player information is required.

Therefore, there is a need for a method and system that addresses the above challenges and provides performance data in real time to the players and also presents the data in a simplified and easy to understand manner, such as in the form of a heatmap. There is also a need for presenting performance data in a manner that accurately represents barriers inaccessible to players, such as walls and objects, which may occur in complex game maps. It is also desired that the system provides historical measure of a player's performance, thus processing to accumulate data over a number of matches, rather than providing just a single metric over the last match played.

SUMMARY

The present specification describes a system and method for generating heatmaps representing individual players' performance level in a videogame, in real time. The system described here provides a unique solution to the various challenges presented for creating and managing heatmaps with real-time updates. The present method minimizes the amount of data stored and also minimizes the bandwidth with the game client.

In some embodiments, the present specification discloses a computer-implemented method of applying a blur operation to a heatmap associated with a game map to generate a visually displayable blurred heatmap, said heatmap including a plurality of pixels, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more game performance metrics of a player, said method comprising: generating a mask representative of a top down image of the game map, wherein the mask defines first areas that are accessible to the player and second areas that are not accessible to the player; defining a data structure comprised of n×m elements, wherein each of said n×m elements has a weight associated therewith; and executing the blurring operation on the at least the portion of the plurality of pixels to generate the visually displayable blurred heatmap by: positioning a center element of the n×m elements on a target pixel of the heatmap; determining whether the center element is part of the first areas or the second areas of the mask; and using a value associated with the target pixel and whether the center element is part of the first areas or the second areas of the mask to determine a smoothed value for the center element.

Optionally, the computer-implemented method further comprises generating a value for each of the n×m elements surrounding the center element depending on whether each of said n×m elements is part of the first areas or the second areas; and using a value associated with a pixel corresponding to each of the n×m elements surrounding the center element to determine the smoothed value for the center element.

Optionally, if each of said n×m elements is part of the second areas, the computer-implemented method includes determining the smoothed value for the center element without using values associated with pixels corresponding to each of said n×m elements.

Optionally, if a first one of said n×m elements is part of the second areas, the computer-implemented method includes determining the smoothed value for the center element without using values of pixels adjacent to said first one of said n×m elements.

Optionally, if a first one of said n×m elements is part of the second areas, the computer-implemented method includes determining the smoothed value for the center element without using values of pixels adjacent to said first one of said n×m elements provided that the pixels adjacent to said first one of said n×m elements do not correspond to elements adjacent to said center element.

Optionally, if each one of said n×m elements is part of the first areas, the computer-implemented method includes determining the smoothed value for the center element using pixel values corresponding to each one of said n×m elements.

Optionally, if none of said n×m elements are part of the second areas, the computer-implemented method includes determining the smoothed value for the center element using each of the n×m elements.

Optionally, n is in a range of 3 to 7, m is in a range of 3 to 7, and m is equal to n.

Optionally, said data structure is a Gaussian kernel.

In some embodiments, the computer-implemented method further comprises recording data representative of a plurality of events in a video game, wherein said plurality of events occur at one or more coordinates within said game map of said video game; dividing said game map into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map from said game map, wherein the secondary map has a lower resolution than said game map; generating performance metrics based on said data and assigning said generated performance metrics to at least one of said plurality of subsections based on said one or more coordinates; and forming a heatmap by generating a non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics and overlaying said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics on said secondary map, wherein a location of said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics is based on at least one of said plurality of subsections to which said generated performance metrics was assigned.

In some embodiments, the present specification discloses a system for applying a blur operation to a heatmap comprising a plurality of pixels and associated with a game map to generate a visually displayable blurred heatmap wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics, said system comprising: a mask representative of a top down image of the game map, wherein the mask defines at least a first area that is accessible to players and at least a second area that is not accessible to players and wherein a color of the first area is different than a color of the second area; a data structure comprised of n×m elements, wherein each of said n×m elements has a weight associated therewith; and a processor in a computing device, said processor executing a plurality of executable programmatic instructions to apply the blurring operation on at least the portion of the plurality of pixels by applying the data structure to the mask, modifying the data structure based on whether at least a portion of the n×m elements is positioned in the first area or in the second area, and applying the modified data structure to the heatmap to generate the visually displayable blurred heatmap.

Optionally, applying the data structure to the mask comprises: positioning a center element of the data structure on a target pixel of the heatmap; determining whether the center element is part of the first area or the second area of the mask; and determining if said each element is part of the first area or the second area for each element in the data structure surrounding the center element.

Optionally, modifying the data structure comprises using a value associated with the target pixel to determine a smoothed value for the center element based on determining whether the center element is part of the first area or the second area of the mask; and using a value associated with a pixel corresponding to said each element to determine a smoothed value for the center element based on determining whether said each element is part of the first area or the second area of the mask.

Optionally, if said each element is part of the second area, the smoothed value for the center element is determined without using the value associated with the pixel corresponding to said each element.

Optionally, if said each element is part of the second area, the smoothed value for the center element is determined without using values of pixels adjacent to said each element.

Optionally, if said each element is part of the second area, the smoothed value for the center element is determined without using values of pixels adjacent to said each element, provided that the pixels adjacent to said each element do not correspond to elements adjacent to said center element.

Optionally, if said each element is part of the first area, the smoothed value for the center element is determined using a pixel value corresponding to said each element and using values of non-masked pixels adjacent to said each element.

Optionally, if none of said n×m elements are part of the second area, the smoothed value for the center element is determined using the weights of each of the n×m elements.

Optionally, n is in a range of 3 to 7, m is in a range of 3 to 7, and m is equal to n.

Optionally, said data structure is a Gaussian kernel.

Optionally, generating the visually displayable blurred heatmap comprises: recording data representative of a plurality of events in a video game, wherein said plurality of events occur at one or more coordinates within said game map; dividing said game map into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map from said game map, wherein the secondary map has a lower resolution than said game map; generating performance metrics based on said data and assigning said generated performance metrics to at least one of said plurality of subsections based on said one or more coordinates; and forming said blurred heatmap by generating a non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics and overlaying said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics on said secondary map, wherein a location of said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics is based on at least one of said plurality of subsections to which said generated performance metrics was assigned.

In some embodiments, the present specification discloses a computer readable non-transitory medium comprising a plurality of executable programmatic instructions wherein, when said plurality of executable programmatic instructions are executed by a processor in a computing device, a process for applying a blur operation to a heatmap is performed to generate a blurred heatmap, said heatmap being associated with a game map and including a plurality of pixels, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics, said plurality of executable programmatic instructions comprising: programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for generating a mask representative of a top down image of the game map, wherein the mask defines at least a first area that is accessible to players and at least a second area that is not accessible to players and wherein a color of the first area is different than a color of the second area; programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for defining a data structure comprised of n×m elements, wherein each of said n×m elements has a weight associated therewith; and programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, to apply the blurring operation on at least the portion of the plurality of pixels by: applying the data structure to the mask; modifying the data structure based on whether at least a portion of the n×m elements is positioned in the first area or in the second area; and, applying the modified data structure to the heatmap to generate the visually displayable blurred heatmap.

In some embodiments, the present specification discloses a computer-implemented method for generating and displaying a heatmap while a player is actively playing a video game on a computing device comprising: recording data representative of a plurality of events in said video game, wherein said plurality of events occurs at one or more coordinates within a virtual geographical landscape of said video game; dividing said virtual geographical landscape into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map of said virtual geographical landscape, wherein the secondary map has a lower resolution than said virtual geographical landscape; generating performance metrics based on said data and assigning said generated performance metrics to at least one of said plurality of subsections based on said one or more coordinates; and forming and displaying a heatmap by generating a non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics and overlaying said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics on said secondary map, wherein a location of said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics is based on to which at least one of said plurality of subsections said generated performance metrics was assigned.

Optionally, the heatmap is generated and displayed locally on said computing device.

Optionally, a size of each of the plurality of subsections is based on an amount of said data representative of a plurality of events that has been recorded.

Optionally, said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics is achieved by varying at least one of a color, a luminance, a hue, a brightness, and a contrast of a pixel as a function of a value of each of said performance metrics.

Optionally, said performance metrics include at least one of a kill/death ratio, a score per minute, an amount of time spent, a path pattern, a player lane use pattern, an objective path pattern, a use of a special ability, an accuracy of weapon use, a number of points obtained, a number of points lost, a number of achievements obtained, a number of achievements lost, an amount of health status obtained, an amount of health status lost, an amount of tokens obtained, an amount of tokens lost, an amount of treasure obtained, and an amount of treasure lost.

Optionally, said performance metrics are generated by weighing data representative of a plurality of events in said video game that have been recorded later in time more heavily than data representative of a plurality of events in said video game that have been recorded earlier in time.

Optionally, said performance metrics are generated by applying a smoothing function on said data, wherein said smoothing function weights data from a new game played more than data generated from games played before the new game.

Optionally, said performance metrics are generated by applying a function represented by: s_(t)=α·x_(t)+(1−a)·s_(t-1), wherein s_(t) is a new metric after updating with data from a new game played, a is a smoothing factor, x_(t) is the data from said new game played, and s_(t-1) is a previous metric before the new game was played.

Optionally, the video game comprises a plurality of modes and wherein a different heatmap is generated for each of said plurality of modes.

In some embodiments, the present specification discloses a computer readable non-transitory medium comprising a plurality of executable programmatic instructions wherein, when said plurality of executable programmatic instructions are executed by a processor in a computing device, a process for generating and displaying a heatmap is performed, while a player is actively playing a video game on the computing device, said plurality of executable programmatic instructions comprising: programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for recording data representative of a plurality of events in said video game, wherein said plurality of events occurs at one or more coordinates within a virtual geographical landscape of said video game; programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for dividing said virtual geographical landscape into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map of said virtual geographical landscape, wherein the secondary map has a lower resolution than said virtual geographical landscape; programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for generating performance metrics based on said data and assigning said generated performance metrics to at least one of said plurality of subsections based on said one or more coordinates; and programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for forming and displaying a heatmap by generating a non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics and overlaying said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics on said secondary map, wherein a location of said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics is based on to which at least one of said plurality of subsections said generated performance metrics was assigned.

Optionally, said heatmap is generated and displayed locally on said computing device.

Optionally, the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for determining a size of each of the plurality of subsections, wherein the size of each of the plurality of subsections is based on an amount of said data representative of a plurality of events that has been recorded.

Optionally, the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for generating the non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics by varying at least one of a color, a luminance, a hue, a brightness, and a contrast of a pixel as a function of a value of each of said performance metrics.

Optionally, said performance metrics include at least one of a kill/death ratio, a score per minute, an amount of time spent, a path pattern, a player lane use pattern, an objective path pattern, a use of a special ability, an accuracy of weapon use, a number of points obtained, a number of points lost, a number of achievements obtained, a number of achievements lost, an amount of health status obtained, an amount of health status lost, an amount of tokens obtained, an amount of tokens lost, an amount of treasure obtained, and an amount of treasure lost.

Optionally, the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for weighing data representative of a plurality of events in said video game that have been recorded later in time more heavily than data representative of a plurality of events in said video game that have been recorded earlier in time in order to generate said performance metrics.

Optionally, the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for applying a smoothing function on said data, wherein said smoothing function weights data from a new game played more than data generated from games played before the new game.

Optionally, the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for applying a function represented by: s_(t)=α·x_(t)+(1−a)·s_(t-1), wherein s_(t) is a new metric after updating with data from a new game played, a is a smoothing factor, x_(t) is the data from said new game played, and s_(t-1) is a previous metric before the new game was played.

Optionally, the video game comprises a plurality of modes and wherein the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for generating a different heatmap for each of said plurality of modes.

Optionally, the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for scaling up a size of the heatmap.

Optionally, the computer readable non-transitory medium further comprises programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for applying a blurring or smoothing technique for scaling up the size of the heatmap.

The aforementioned and other embodiments of the present shall be described in greater depth in the drawings and detailed description provided below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features and advantages of the present specification will be further appreciated, as they become better understood by reference to the detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates a heatmap for an individual player's performance in an exemplary video game, according to one embodiment of the present specification;

FIG. 2 illustrates a secondary map generated to represent the actual geographical map of a virtual game, in accordance with an embodiment of the present specification;

FIG. 3 is a table illustrating examples of using exponential smoothing and a simple moving average of the previous 10 matches in accordance with one embodiment of the present specification;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of updating heatmaps in real time, according to one embodiment of the present specification;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a computer implemented method for generating and displaying a heatmap while a player is actively playing a video game on a computing device, according to one embodiment of the present specification;

FIG. 6 illustrates a conventional heatmap, generated without boundaries, overlaid on an actual game map image;

FIG. 7 is an image of a game map mask, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification;

FIG. 8 is a diagram of a 5×5 edge-aware kernel that is used for applying a computer-implemented blur operation, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification;

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a blurred heatmap image overlaid onto a top-down image of an actual game map, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a gaming system or environment in which methods of the present specification are implemented or executed;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart delineating a plurality of steps of a computer-implemented edge-aware blurring method, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart delineating a plurality of steps of a computer-implemented method of applying a blur operation to a heatmap associated with a game map to generate a blurred heatmap, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification; and

FIG. 13 is a flowchart delineating a plurality of steps of a computer-implemented edge-aware kernel blurring method, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one embodiment, the present specification describes a method for displaying current as well as historical measures of a player's performance, in an easy to understand manner and in near real-time, as a video game is played. The method of present specification takes into account the changing level of a player's skill over time, as they play the game more and more, and also accounts for multiple game modes with different objectives and playing strategies. In one embodiment, the present method presents a player's behavior and performance as measured over game map, game mode and time. Most importantly, the systems described herein provide a unique solution to the various challenges presented by the need for creating and managing heatmaps with real-time updates, minimizing the amount of data stored and minimizing the bandwidth with the game client.

In accordance with an aspect of the present specification, a method for performing an interpolation, and more specifically a blurring operation, to generate blurred heatmaps which recognize and accurately represent player inaccessible barriers or boundaries is disclosed. The generated blurred heatmaps are capable of presenting or displaying a substantially accurate view of performance with reference to an actual game map. In embodiments, the interpolative or blurring operations are capable of dealing with a complex set of boundaries to be useful in displaying heatmaps.

The present specification is directed towards multiple embodiments. The following disclosure is provided in order to enable a person having ordinary skill in the art to practice the specification. Language used in this specification should not be interpreted as a general disavowal of any one specific embodiment or used to limit the claims beyond the meaning of the terms used therein. The general principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit and scope of the specification. Also, the terminology and phraseology used is for the purpose of describing exemplary embodiments and should not be considered limiting. Thus, the present specification is to be accorded the widest scope encompassing numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents consistent with the principles and features disclosed. For purpose of clarity, details relating to technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the specification have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present specification.

It should be noted herein that any feature or component described in association with a specific embodiment may be used and implemented with any other embodiment unless clearly indicated otherwise.

It should be appreciated that the programmatic methods described herein may be performed on any computing device, including a laptop, desktop, smartphone, tablet computer, specialized gaming console, or virtual reality system. The computing device comprises at least one processor and a nonvolatile memory that stores the programmatic instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform the methods or steps disclosed herein, including the generation of a graphical user interface that is communicated to a local or remote display. The computing device is in communication with at least one remotely located server through a network of any type.

As used herein, the term “heatmap” shall mean a graphic representation of data, such as the total number of kills or kills per engagement, where the individual values of the data 1) are represented by pixels having differing colors, luminance, hue, brightness, and/or contrast and 2) are positionally mapped based on where one or more of those parameters were achieved in the game, thereby presenting a geographical distribution of those individual values across a graphical user interface. A heatmap communicates those individual values of data without using alphanumeric characters, only relying on pixels of differing colors, luminance, hue, brightness, and/or contrast to communicate the actual values of that data, although it may have other alphanumeric characters as legends or other information. Accordingly, a heatmap has non-alphanumeric visual representations of performance metrics.

As used herein, the term “real-time” shall mean the occurrence of an event, such as the display of a heatmap, during, or concurrent with, another event, such as the playing of a game.

As used herein, the term “in game” shall mean the presentation of data in the course of a video game playing session, e.g. while a player is actively engaged in playing a video game.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a gaming system or environment 1000 in which the methods of the present specification may be implemented or executed. The system 1000 comprises at least one client-server architecture, where one or more game servers 1005 are in communication with one or more client devices 1010 over a network 1015. Players may access the system 1000 via the one or more client devices 1010 that may include, but are not limited to, personal or desktop computers, laptops, Netbooks, handheld devices such as smartphones, tablets, and PDAs, gaming consoles and/or any other computing platform known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. Although three client devices 1010 are illustrated in FIG. 10, any number of client devices 1010 can be in communication with the one or more game servers 1005 over the network 1015.

The one or more game servers 1005 can be any computing device having one or more processors and one or more computer-readable storage media such as RAM, hard disk or any other optical or magnetic media. The one or more game servers 1005 include a plurality of modules operating to provide or implement a plurality of functional, operational or service-oriented methods of the present specification. In some embodiments, the one or more game servers 1005 include or are in communication with a game database system 1035. The game database system 1035 stores a plurality of game data (such as, but not limited to, generated heatmaps and actual game maps) associated with at least one game that is served or provided to the client devices 1010 over the network 1015. In some embodiments, the one or more game servers 1005 may be implemented by a cloud of computing platforms operating together as game servers 1005.

In some embodiments, the one or more client devices 1010 are configured to implement or execute one or more of a plurality of modules operating to provide or implement a plurality of methods of the present specification.

It should be appreciated that the term ‘module’ refers to computer logic utilized to provide a desired functionality, service or operation. In various embodiments, a module can be implemented in hardware, firmware and/or software controlling a general purpose processor. In one embodiment, the modules are programmatic codes or computer executable instructions stored on a storage system, such as the game database system 1035, and executed by a processor.

In one embodiment, the system and method of present specification presents a player's performance in the form of a heatmap, which illustrates the player's performance in different areas on a geographical map of the virtual game being played. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a heatmap 100, for an individual player's performance in an exemplary video game. Referring to FIG. 1, darker gray areas 102 show where the player performed well and lighter gray areas 101 highlight the game areas where the player performed poorly, as measured by specific individual parameters.

As defined above, the coloring, luminance, hue, brightness, and/or contrast used in a heatmap can represent many different performance metrics in a video game, such as kill/death ratio, scores per minute, time spent, path patterns, player lane use patterns, objective path patterns, special ability use, weapon accuracy, points obtained, points lost, achievements obtained, achievements lost, health status, tokens obtained, tokens lost, treasure obtained, and treasure lost, as well as map area control information.

A kill/death ratio is a measure of how many deaths the player has caused (i.e., through shooting or explosions) relative to how many lives the player has used to do so. For example, if a player has caused 16 deaths and expended 4 lives to do so, the player's kill/death ratio would be 4. The scores per minute metric measures how many points or how much value a player generates for every minute the player has played the game. The time spent metric measures how much time a player has spent at locations in the game. The path pattern metric visually denotes the specific paths a player takes, or has taken, through the game. The special ability use measures what abilities, such as increased strength, increased speed, invisibility, teleportation, among others, the player has used at each location in the game. The weapon accuracy metric measures how many shots successfully hit their target relative to the number of shots that failed to successfully hit their target.

In one embodiment, the present method generates heatmaps as a video game is played to display individual parameters referred to as “kills per engagement”, which is defined as the ratio of (kills−death)/(kills+deaths) or (K−D)/(K+D), where kills refers to the number of other characters the player has killed and deaths refers to the number of lives expended by the player. In one embodiment, the range of “kills per engagement” metric varies between −1.0 and 1.0 and is not open ended, in contrast to a “kills per death” (K/D) ratio. One of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that K/D ratio varies between 0 and the number of kills in the game (all kills and no deaths).

In one embodiment, the present method calculates the “kills per engagement” metric for locations in the actual game to obtain a 2D array of values that can be overlaid on a secondary game map space (also referred to as a ‘secondary map’), which is a lower resolution version of the actual game map (also referred to as a ‘virtual geographical landscape map’), to yield a heatmap. In some embodiments, the secondary game map space is a lower resolution version of a top-down view of the actual game map. In some embodiments, the secondary game map space is formed by taking a portion of the actual game map and decreasing its resolution optimally. It should be noted that, in embodiments, the secondary game map spaces are not merely different perspective views of the actual game map or views of the actual game map from different vantage points. In fact, in some embodiments, the secondary game map space is formed by a) dividing a portion or a view (such as, but not limited to, perspective, top-down or elevation/side view) of an actual game map into a plurality of subsections, b) lowering resolution (less visual detail) of the portion or view of the actual game map, and c) having at least one of a smaller width, a smaller height, or a smaller number of pixels than the portion or view of the actual game map.

FIG. 2 illustrates a secondary game map space generated as a representation of the overall geographical map of a virtual game. It may be noted that the secondary game map is a virtual space where event locations are continuously recorded by the system. The purpose of the virtual space is to aggregate the contributions of any events that occur within that space. Events include kills, deaths, scores, time spent, paths taken, special abilities used, weapons used, the accuracy of the weapons used, points obtained, points lost, achievements obtained, achievements lost, health obtained, health lost, tokens obtained, tokens lost, treasure obtained or treasure lost, or derivations thereof.

In one embodiment, the system records each event, as it occurs, by assigning both a value to the event and a location that corresponds to a position in the secondary game map space. The system optionally processes that event value to create a specific performance metric, such as kill/death ratio or time spent per minute, which remains assigned to the same position in the secondary game map space. The system then presents the event value and/or specific performance metric in the form of a heatmap based upon the secondary game map space.

Referring to FIG. 2, an exemplary secondary game map space 201 is selected as a representation of the X-Y co-ordinate system of the actual game map 202. Thus, for example, if an actual game map has a coordinate system in inches and covers an area of 500 by 500 feet, the size of the secondary game map space may be chosen, for example, 30×30 cells (900 total) and the same may be used to generate a heatmap. Thus, all the events that occur in the game map space are accumulated or summed within the chosen space to create data that is at a lower resolution than the game event coordinates. Stated differently, the virtual geographical landscape of the game is divided into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map, where the secondary map has a lower resolution than the virtual geographical landscape.

Thus, the heatmap is a smaller, lower resolution, version of the actual game map. In one embodiment, the heatmap is not overlaid on the map of the game; rather, all events recorded in a given area of the actual map are recorded in the proportional or corresponding cell of the chosen fixed size grid. The system is programmed to translate an event occurring at a specific location in the original virtual geographical map to a scaled or proportional location in the scaled down, or second, virtual geographical map. It should be appreciated that the heatmap has a lower resolution because it contains less visual detail than the original virtual geographical map and has at least one of a smaller width, a smaller height, or a smaller number of pixels than the original virtual geographical map (or the actual game map).

It may be noted that the choice of the size of the secondary game map within the map coordinates depends on a number of factors, including the type and numeric quantity of raw data. If the resolution of the secondary game map is too low, the events will cluster in a limited number of regions, which may not be meaningful. If the resolution is too high, then the ability to meaningfully calculate and display a given metric, such as kill/death ratio, is lost because, when the resolution is very high, small data sets, such as only one kill or one death in a location, may appear as an extremely small, perhaps imperceptible, dot. As a result, many of the recorded metrics may be difficult to see.

Thus, the preferred size of the secondary game map is dependent on the raw data. In one embodiment, the preferred size is inferred from the data and is determined after the data has been collected. Accordingly, the system comprises programmatic instructions that, when executed, analyzes the data from the standpoint of data density, data clustering, or other data metrics and determines an appropriate secondary game map size to allow for the proper display of the specific data set collected.

In some embodiments, the heatmap is implemented by generating a performance map using a 2D co-ordinate system and overlaying on the actual geographical map of the game. The underlying geographical map provides spatial information for the heatmap data, and helps to evaluate where, for example, high performance locations are associated with specific areas on the geographical map. In some embodiments, a 3D heatmap is generated, which appears as 3D clouds overlaid on a 2D or 3D geographical map. The player is provided with the ability to rotate and view this 3D performance map to view from different angles.

One of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that it is not optimal to simply compute and display a single metric over a single match played; instead, it is preferable to additionally include historical measures of a player's performance. In one embodiment, the present system accumulates data for the same metrics over a number of matches and processes that data to arrive at a measure that reflects historical performance. It may further be noted that that a player's skill changes over time. Therefore, accumulating performance data over all time will not reflect recent changes in player performance, as recent performance contributions will be averaged with all performances over time. Thus, in one embodiment, the present method computes a moving average over fixed number of matches to best reflect a player's current performance. In one embodiment, the present method takes into account the last 10 matches played to generate the average. It should be appreciate, however, that this number can range from 2 to 100 matches in any whole number increment therein.

In one embodiment, the present method takes into account multiple game “modes” with different objectives and playing strategies that can be played in a virtual game. As an example, some common game modes for first person shooter games include “capture the flag” where teams attempt to control and return a flag to their base, “king of the hill” where teams attempt to control specific locations on the map which periodically rotate to other locations and “death match” where teams simply attempt to get more kills than their opponents. The location of objective points or absence of them as in the case of “death match” greatly influences how players move and perform on a particular map, and thus generate very different heatmaps. Accordingly, player performance is not just measured over a game map, but also measured with respect to a specific game mode and a game time. In one embodiment, the present method computes several other metrics, apart from kills per engagement, such as player time spent in each grid cell, “scores per minute” and a kill-death ratio (K/D), to account for varying game modes.

As known in the art, in online multiplayer games there is usually very little historical information about a player available on the game client, such as a console, PC or mobile device because of the need to load and save the player information between matches. Trying to store and manage large amounts of historical performance information is not possible as it would have to be uploaded each time a match is played, thereby substantially delaying a gaming experience. Raw match summary data for all players is typically uploaded at the end of each match. In one embodiment, the system (such as the system 1000 of FIG. 10) of the present specification uses a server, remotely located relative to the gaming client being used by the player, to store the raw match summary data at the end of each match. This information is then used to create heatmaps for individual players, taking into account their most recent matches. It may be noted that any technology or set of technologies suitable for the purpose may be used to accomplish this client-server architecture.

One of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate that even with a server store, storing historical data for all players across game maps, modes and a time window is a challenge when there are millions of players. The following sections describe various problems related to storage and management of large amounts of data, and the solutions provided by the present specification to address the same.

Binning Raw Data

As known in the art, it is possible to store detailed information on every kill and death by a player in a match from which performance heatmaps can be generated. However, this is more detail than is typically needed to create a heatmap. Storing raw coordinate information for every event, kill or death for instance, would grow very large. It would be preferred to combine events that fall within a portion of the map of a specific size (e.g. a cell). By combining the contributions of these events, this results in a fixed maximum storage size, which is the total number of discrete portions of the map, e.g. cells or plurality of subsections. Therefore, in one embodiment, the present method applies histogram binning to the raw data to create metrics within a fixed number of cells. The system performs histogram binning by adding the contributions of all events in a match that occur within each cell, defined as a portion of the map which corresponds to a subset of the geographical map coordinates. Using this approach, a secondary map size much smaller than the raw coordinates used in game may be used to generate useful heatmaps. For example, a grid of 30 by 30 cells (900 total) may be enough to create a heatmap, for a game coordinate size of approximately 500 by 500 feet in virtual coordinates. This would show enough detail for many performance metrics, and any additional detail may not be necessary.

It may be noted that too large a binning grid can result in very sparse data with insufficient counts to be able to calculate and effectively display the metric. Storing an intermediate amount of gridded data is more efficient than storing detail on individual kills and deaths.

It may further be noted that when this processing is performed on raw match data, such as kill and death locations, the desired metric is calculated for each cell in the grid. This typically results in a sparse array of values with only information for locations where one or more events are recorded. As a further optimization, rather than storing the entire set of values for all the cells, the present method stores only the row and column indices and metric value for locations where data is nonzero. This further saves on disk storage. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the data set for the heatmap only includes non-zero data values with associated cell, grid or coordinate locations and does not include any cell, grid or coordinate locations without associated metric values.

Data Selection and Smoothing

It is an object of the present specification to store and display complex performance metrics data through a heatmap that has optimally lower resolution than the actual game map. As mentioned earlier, the system of present invention stores a player's performance over a fixed period of time, such as for example across the last 10 matches played for a particular map and mode combination. Aggregating data over multiple games is more representative of a player's current performance, since it represents matches played at their current skill level and provides relevant information for a player trying to understand where they have improved, and need to improve, on a particular map or mode. Taking into account a fixed number of recent matches is more useful than averaging over all time, as past performance at lower skill levels may dominate the metrics and might result in heatmaps that do not present correct information regarding current skill levels of a player. In order to accomplish this, game match heatmaps over a period of time need to be combined in order to represent some kind of average performance by the player. This may be accomplished by storing a set of recent heatmaps for individual matches and combining them using a weighting approach, or as suggested below by using a more memory efficient approach.

It may be appreciated that storing a sparse grid of metrics as described above for many matches has a number of challenges. In order to calculate a moving average of performance over time there is the need to drop the oldest match information when a new match is played. Even if a window of the last 10 matches played is considered, the system needs to store information across all maps and for all modes.

In one embodiment, the system generates a plurality of cells for a secondary game map and incrementally adds performance metrics from new matches, generating an average performance over all historical games played, on cell-by-cell basis. The system then executes a plurality of programmatic instructions to generate a summary metric, which embodies values from historical games played, and applies a smoothing function to compute a new performance metric that weights each new match more than the summary metric generated from matches occurring before the new match. With this approach, previous matches contribute a decreasing effect on the summary measure over time, resulting in new matches contributing more and earlier matches contributing less to the overall metric average. For example, each metric from games 1 to n−1 has less weight than a metric from game n. The preferred function is an exponential smoothing function and represented by: s _(t) =α·x _(t)+(1−α)·s _(t-1)

Where:

s_(t) is the new smoothed metric after updating with metric data from a new match

α is a smoothing factor as described below

x_(t) is the metric, such as “kills per engagement” or other metric, for the latest match

s_(t-1) is the previous smoothed metric before the latest match was played.

Depending on the smoothing factor α used, the effect of this computation is that over a certain number of past matches all contributions are effectively lost. Accordingly, the system executes a plurality of programmatic instructions that receives a first set of metric data into memory, said first set of metric data comprising a first value associated with a game parameter and a second value associated with a timestamp, game number, or other identifier indicating a time order in which that first value was generated. The system also executes a plurality of programmatic instructions that receives a second set of metric data into memory, said second set of metric data comprising a third value associated with the same game parameter as the first value and a fourth value associated with a timestamp, game number, or other identifier indicating a time order in which that third value was generated. This process repeats thereby resulting in the memory having n sets of metric data comprising n values associated with the same game parameter and n values associated with timestamps indicating a time order in which those n values for the game parameters were generated. The system then executes a plurality of programmatic instructions that applies a function which weights, or increases the relative mathematical contribution to an overall or summary metric, of all values derived from games greater than m relative to all values derived from games less than m, where 1<m<n. In one embodiment, m is 10. In another embodiment, m is any whole number between n and 1.

When a new value associated with a metric, and derived from the playing of a game, is obtained, it is added to the summary metric through the functions described above. This approach enables the system to locally store a weighted function and then incrementally add new data as received. Locally storing and managing only one grid (set of cells) of metrics per player for a given map and mode combination eliminates the need to locally store all values from historical matches at each point in the map and then recalculate an average each time a new game is played. For example, rather than locally store n values associated with m different locations on a virtual map, the client locally stores a single summary metric function associated with m different locations on a virtual map, each summary metric function being representative of weighted values from the n games played, and then updates that summary metric function with new data after each game is played. Thus, for the example, if metric data for the last 10 matches is to be stored, the present method mimics the actual storage by storing grids with summary metrics, thereby reducing the amount of storage required by a factor of 10.

FIG. 3 is a table illustrating examples of using exponential smoothing and a simple moving average of the previous 10 matches. Referring to FIG. 3, column 301 represents the current value of the performance metric, such as “kills per engagement” or any other metric. Column 302 lists the exponential smoothing values. In the present case, exponential smoothing was applied using a smoothing factor of 0.3, and as described above only the previous value of the metric and the new metric are needed for the computation of smoothed metric. Column 303 enlists the moving average of a fixed number of previous metrics. Thus, to compute a moving average of 10 metrics, the previous 10 values need to be stored.

While bandwidth has expanded, for applications where latency issues are to be avoided and bandwidth demands are high, such as multi-player gaming, it is essential to architect systems that minimize bandwidth demands wherever possible. In that light, while providing players with heatmaps representative of historical metrics may be readily done via a server, it is often desirable to generate and display those heatmaps on the local client, as described above, in order to minimize bandwidth demands and latency issues. This is especially true when a game has multiple different heatmaps representing different modes of play and different metrics and when each of those heatmaps needs to be displayed in real-time. In such cases, creating heatmap images on a server, downloading them to the client, and then repeatedly updating the heatmaps on the server with new data and downloading new heatmaps after each match played would be impractical and result in a poor user experience. The amount of data needed to be transferred, combined with the need to have the match data processed and new heatmaps generated in near real-time, is simply too large.

In one embodiment, two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) maps which are part of the game's local client code are repurposed to generate a heatmap. The system executes a plurality of programmatic instructions that acquire at least one of a two dimensional (2D) and a three dimensional (3D) map. Optionally, the system executes a plurality of programmatic instructions that processes the two dimensional (2D) and/or the three dimensional (3D) map to modify it visually, such as by modifying luminance, contrast, hue, brightness, color, size, resolution, brilliance, exposure, highlights, shadows, black point, saturation, intensity, neutrals, tone, and/or grain. The system then executes a plurality of programmatic instructions that combine the optionally modified two dimensional (2D) and/or the three dimensional (3D) map with the plurality of cells (grid of data) associated with the player's game mode, provided the map relates to that game mode. To achieve this combination, the heatmap data, previously described as a single 2D or 3D plurality of cells (grid of data) which represents the aggregation of data from recent matches played, is scaled up to the size of a two dimensional (2D) and/or the three dimensional (3D) geographical map using a Gaussian blur, blurring, or other smoothing technique. For example, a 30×30 grid of data can be scaled to 1024×1024 to match the size of the underlying geographical map image. This can be done quickly and efficiently in the client and removes the need to perform this on a server and download a relatively large image file to display the heatmap.

Operationally, in one embodiment, the system executes a plurality of instructions that causes the client to access a server that has stored in associated memory a player's historical match summary information when that player initiates a gaming session, which is defined as a series of discrete matches played without disconnecting from the game. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of updating heatmaps in real time. Referring to FIG. 4, in the first step 401, at the beginning of a session the client downloads a copy of the historical match summary information from the server. At the end of every match, the client sends a match summary to the remote server, and simultaneously performs local updates to its copy of the heatmap data, as shown in step 402. It may be noted that the heatmap data is not sent to the server during the session. Rather, as part of normal game operation a match summary or heatmap data is sent at the end of every match to a server. The data in this match summary is used to update the server. The server is thus only dependent on match summaries for data. The local updates to heatmap data performed on the client can thus be considered transient and are never transmitted back to the server. In one embodiment, the local copy of heatmap data is abandoned at the end of each session, as shown in step 403. When the player next plays a session, as shown in step 404, the server side data would have been updated with information from all match summaries it had received from the last session and the latest data is downloaded by the client again (step 401 repeated). This process ensures that a permanent record of heatmap data is present on the server and a transient copy is present and updated, in real-time, on the client just for the duration of one session. If the player disconnects during a session, the transient data may be lost but the historical copy of heatmap data would still be stored and available to be restored at the initiation of the next session, thereby minimizing lost heatmap data. This process also avoids having to rely on real-time communications with a server to repeatedly update and download heatmaps during a gaming session. The ability to do this in real-time is problematic as there typically is some lag involved in getting match summary information through a pipeline of operations to be able to perform the update.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a computer-implemented method for generating and displaying a heatmap while a player is actively playing a video game on a computing device, according to one embodiment of the present specification. At step 501, data representative of a plurality of events in a video game is recorded, wherein said plurality of events occur at one or more coordinates within a virtual geographical landscape map of the video game. The virtual geographical landscape map is divided into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map of the virtual geographical landscape at step 502, wherein the secondary map has a lower resolution than the virtual geographical landscape. Performance metrics based on the data are generated and assigned to at least one of the plurality of subsections based on the one or more coordinates, at step 503. Then, at step 504, a heatmap is formed and displayed by generating a non-alphanumeric visual representation of the performance metrics and overlaying the non-alphanumeric visual representation of the performance metrics on the secondary map, wherein a location of the non-alphanumeric visual representation of the performance metrics is based on at least one of the plurality of subsections to which the generated performance metrics was assigned.

Generating Heatmaps that Accommodate Barriers

Generating heatmaps entails creating images based on a grid of spatial measures based on player performance metrics recorded in 2D space. However, conventional heatmaps are not aware of or capable of representing physical boundaries in the actual game map (or the virtual geographical landscape map). Thus conventional heatmaps tend to ignore physical boundaries, such as walls and objects, and as a result, display performance metrics in areas that are off-limits or unavailable to players or display performance metrics across certain boundaries where the performance metrics may not be applicable.

FIG. 6 is an illustration of heatmap 600 generated without boundaries and overlaid on an actual game map image. The figure shows areas 605 of high performance and areas 610 of low performance wherein areas 605, 610 bleed or breach across walls and features thereby not accurately representing positions on the game map where players have had actual recorded events. Therefore, while a mask may be used to “cut out” non-accessible areas, it is not accurate since it leads to the representation of activity in areas where such activity could not have occurred. Preferably, any visual representation of activity or performance metrics abruptly stops when it encounters any barrier.

A heatmap, such as the heatmap 600, can be generated using the following computer-implemented steps: a) recording data that specifies events or measures of performance at specific 2D geographic points or coordinates on a game map that can be broken up into multiple levels if the game map has a 3D component; b) using the points or coordinates to create an evenly spaced grid with summary values for each grid location using a histogram binning operation; and c) using a blurring algorithm to blur the detailed grid into a smooth image showing areas of lower or higher performance. This can be implemented using a kernel blurring algorithm applied multiple times to approximate a Gaussian blur in image processing terms.

In one embodiment, a data structure, comprised of n×m elements, is overlaid on a heatmap having discrete pixel values corresponding to at least one performance metric. The data structure is used to apply a plurality of weights to the discrete pixel values in order to blur, interpolate, or otherwise smooth the discrete pixel values, thereby decreasing the incremental differences between neighboring pixel values and generating a blurring effect. In order to account for non-playable areas and make sure the blurring effect does not extend into map locations where no play occurred, or can occur, the weights are either applied or not applied via the data structure based on a determination of whether a given element in the data structure corresponds to a playable or a non-playable area in the image. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the present specification teaches a method, system, or computer program product that executes a plurality of programmatic instructions in a processor and, when executed, 1) generates a mask representative of first areas that are accessible to players in a game map and second areas that are not accessible to players in that game map; 2) defines a data structure comprised of n×m elements; 3) positions an element of the data structure on a target pixel of the heatmap; 4) and determines a value for the element based on the mapping of that data structure to the mask and whether the element, or other elements in the data structure, map to a playable or non-playable area. An exemplary process is further described below.

Kernel Blurring

To blur, sharpen, emboss, or apply edge detection to an image, a convolution between a “kernel” and the image is performed. Convolution is the process of adding each element of the image to its local neighbors, weighted by the kernel. A kernel or convolution matrix is a small two dimensional (2D) matrix of values, such as a square grid of values. For heatmaps, a Gaussian kernel, which is a matrix of values that define the blurring, can be employed. Blurring is accomplished by moving this grid of values such that it is centered on each pixel in an image and applying the weights in the kernel against the pixels in the image around the target pixel to calculate a contribution from each pixel that the kernel falls on, and adding these to create a value used to replace the target pixel, typically the pixel at the center of the grid of values. While the specification may refer to the kernel as a square grid of values, it should be appreciated that this generally refers to a data structure comprising a plurality of values which may be arranged in an n×m format, where n may equal or not equal m. In some preferred embodiments, n and m are odd numbers, where n may equal or not equal m.

Adapting Convolution to Use a Mask

In accordance with an aspect, the present specification discloses a computer-implemented edge-aware kernel blurring method that accommodates barriers. To accommodate barriers, rather than defining them as line segments, as is typically done in cartographic software such as ArcGIS (a Geographic Information System by Esri), the computer implemented method of the present specification uses a mask to provide information to the kernel convolution operation, thus providing barrier information.

In embodiments, a mask is an image generated that is based on a top-down view of an actual game map with at least one first area coded in a first color (such as white, for example) representing areas that are accessible to players (that is, areas that are non-masked and therefore playable) and at least one second area coded in a second color (such as black, for example) representing areas that are not accessible to players (that is, areas that are masked and therefore non-playable). The inaccessible areas, or areas where a player cannot go, may be thin walls or areas comprising larger shapes that define solid features. Multiple masks can be created to represent different levels that exist in a 3D map. The masks are used to convey information regarding the location of the existence of barriers in the map, wherein the information is used in the edge-aware kernel blurring method of the present specification. FIG. 7 is an illustration of a mask 700 for a game map, in accordance with an embodiment of the present specification. A plurality of white areas 705 are those available or accessible to players and a plurality of black areas 710 are those that are blocked, off-limits or inaccessible to players.

It should be appreciated that the dimensional size of a mask preferably matches the dimensional size of the gridded data to be blurred. For example, if data for a game map is gridded to size 1024×1024 then a mask of size 1024×1024 that matches it would be used.

Barrier-Aware Kernel

In accordance with embodiments of the present specification, rather than simply applying the elements in the convolution kernel against corresponding data points (representing performance metrics) in the non-blurred heatmap or gridded data, the barrier-aware kernel (also referred to as edge-aware kernel or playable area aware kernel) blurring method of the present specification tests whether each element in the kernel is part of an accessible area of the game map or not by looking at the corresponding value in the mask (in other words, by comparing a row and column in the gridded data with the same row and column in the mask, since both the gridded data and the mask are of the same dimension), such as the mask 700 of FIG. 7. If this is a masked point, then the value from the gridded data will not be used to calculate a smoothed value for the center point. Kernel elements closer to the center of the kernel that fall within a masked area will cause points adjacent and farther from the kernel center to also not contribute to the gridded data being considered.

Exemplary Use Case

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a 5×5 edge-aware kernel 800 that is used for applying a computer-implemented interpolation or blur operation, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification. As shown, in accordance with some embodiments, each element of the kernel 800 is identified with a numeric prefix (such as 2 and 3) followed by an alphabetic designation. The center element 805 is identified by the numeral ‘1’. It should be appreciated that elements 2 a to 2 h define a “first ring” of elements or points around the center element 805 and define one level of smoothing in the blurring algorithm. Also, elements 3 a to 3 p represent a “second ring” of elements or points and the blurring algorithm ties the second ring of elements or points to a point in the first ring. In embodiments, a contribution of each element of the kernel 800, towards calculating a smoothed value of the center element 805, follows a plurality of rules depending on the masking of the elements while applying the kernel 800 to a heatmap or gridded data. The plurality of rule may include, for example:

Rule a: if the center element 805 falls in a blocked area of the mask, the result is set to 0 as it is a masked point.

Rule b: For the 8 elements surrounding the center (2 a through 2 h), do not consider that element or any element on the outer, adjacent portion if they are masked. In other words, if 2 a is masked, then disregard 2 a, and also 3 a, 3 b and 3 f. That is, if a masked element in the “first ring” is a corner element (2 a) then three elements (3 a, 3 b and 3 f) in the “second ring”, adjacent to the masked element are not considered. If 2 b is masked, disregard elements 2 b and 3 c. That is, if a masked element in the “first ring” is a side element (2 b) then one element (3 c), in the “second ring, adjacent to the masked element is not considered. Masking elements labeled with the prefix 2 thus affects the contribution of itself and either one or three additional elements adjacent and farther from the center. In other words, in embodiments, contributions from elements or points in an outer ring (for example, the “second ring”) are tied to characteristics (masked or not masked) of elements or points in an inner ring (for example, the “first ring”) such that contributions from one or three elements or points from the outer ring are blocked as a result of masked elements or points in the inner ring. This algorithmic rule helps blurred heatmaps bend around corners better.

Rule c: If any of the 8 elements surrounding the center are not masked, only add contributions from those elements and adjacent, outer elements that are also not masked. As an example, assume that 2 a and 3 b are not masked but 3 a and 3 f are masked. Only the contributions of 2 a and 3 b are considered.

Rule d: If none of the elements in the 5×5 kernel 800 are masked then there will be a total of 25 elements that contribute to the value of the center element 805.

Whatever rules have been applied, the weighted sum is then divided by 25 (the number of elements in the kernel). There can be less than 25 values that contribute but the result is still divided by 25.

Accordingly, a grid of weighting values is modified to reflect a presence of barriers in an image by modifying a value of a first grid cell located within the barrier and modifying a value of one or more grid cells proximate the first grid cell, depending on where the first grid cell is located in the grid of values. It should be appreciated that different modifications may be performed based on different locations of the first grid cell. However, the overall objective of having a grid of weighting values that is modified to accurately represent the presence of barriers in an image remains the same.

The above computer-implemented edge-aware blurring algorithm operates on each gridded data point in the heatmap image and can be repeated a plurality of times to achieve a desired level of blurring to generate a blurred heatmap. In embodiments, the desired level of blurring is typically one in which individual gridded data points are not identifiable but not so much that large areas where there was no gridded data have contributions from blurring. The number of times the blurring algorithm is applied is dependent at least on the density of gridded data and the resolution of the resultant image. In embodiments, the blurring algorithm may be applied in a range of 5 to 10 times. In this case, the presence of masked boundaries will prevent masked areas from contributing but does allow blurring to wrap around corners when multiple passes are made. This occurs because after each pass (that is, application of the blurring algorithm) the blurring will grow small areas with gridded data into larger ones and as areas grow the blurring effect farther from the centers of the small areas will be aware of boundaries and travel around them. It should be appreciated that this is an important effect because it is desirable that physically adjacent areas receive contributions even if corners are present.

Finally, as shown in FIG. 9, the resulting blurred heatmap image 905 is overlaid onto a top-down image of the actual game map 910 to show the relationship between the performance and locations on the game map 910. As shown in FIG. 9, player performance is constrained by the lanes and inaccessible structures 915 that exist in the actual game map geometry or landscape, thereby, accurately reflecting player performance in 2D space.

It should be appreciated that the case of the 5×5 edge-aware kernel is only exemplary and in no way limiting to the scope of the present specification. In alternate embodiments, a smaller edge-aware kernel or a larger edge-aware kernel may be implemented. For example, a 3×3 edge-aware kernel simply needs to test that the center element is not masked and then add the contribution of each of the surrounding 8 non-masked elements. In another example, in using a 7×7 edge-aware kernel, there is another layer added for which contributions of elements farther away from the center must be tested to ensure that any masked elements close to the center will block the contributions of elements farther from the center. The 7×7 edge-aware kernel can be thought of as a single center point, first surrounded by a 3×3 ring of elements, then surrounded by elements in a 5×5 outer ring, and finally surrounded by elements in the outermost or farthest 7×7 ring.

In accordance with some embodiments, the 5×5 edge-aware kernel 800 of FIG. 8 is optimal for some video games, such as Call of Duty, as the kernel 800 balances computational performance with the quality of the results. However, in various embodiments an application of the kernel 800 would depend on factors such as, but not limited to, the original data sample grid and the resulting size of the desired heatmap image.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a plurality of steps of a computer-implemented edge-aware blurring method, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification. In an embodiment, the method generates a blurred heatmap by applying a data structure, of n×m elements, to a heatmap image (associated with a game map of a video game) generated using the method of FIG. 5. In various embodiments, the heatmap includes a plurality of pixels, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics. At step 1105, a mask is generated representative of first areas that are accessible to players (that is, playable areas) in a game map and second areas that are not accessible to players (that is, non-playable areas) in that game map. At step 1110, a data structure comprised of n×m elements is defined. At step 1115, an element of the data structure is positioned on a target pixel of the heatmap. Thereafter, at step 1120, a value for the element is determined based on a mapping of the data structure to the mask and whether the element, or other elements in the data structure, maps to the first or second areas.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a plurality of steps of a computer-implemented method of applying a blur operation to a heatmap associated with a game map to generate a blurred heatmap, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification. In an embodiment, the method generates the blurred heatmap by applying a data structure, of n×m elements, to the heatmap image generated using the method of FIG. 5. In various embodiments, the heatmap includes a plurality of pixels, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics. At step 1205, a mask is generated representative of a top-down image of the game map, wherein the mask defines first areas that are accessible to players and second areas that are not accessible to players. At step 1210, a data structure comprising n×m elements is defined, wherein each of the n×m elements has a weight associated therewith. At step 1215, a center element of the data structure is positioned on a target pixel of the heatmap. At step 1220, it is determined whether the center element is part of the first areas or the second areas of the mask. At step 1225, a value associated with the target pixel is used to determine a smoothed value for the center element based on determining whether the center element is part of the first areas or the second areas of the mask. At step 1230, for each element in the data structure surrounding the center element it is determined if said each element is part of the first areas or the second areas. Finally, at step 1235, a smoothed value for the center element is determined using a value associated with a pixel corresponding to said each element based on determining whether said each element is part of the first areas or the second areas of the mask. Steps 1215 to 1235 are repeated on at least the portion of the plurality of pixels.

In some embodiments, n is in a range of 3 to 7, m is in a range of 3 to 7, and m is equal to n. In some embodiments, n and m are odd numbers and m is equal to n. In some embodiments, n and m are odd numbers and m is not equal to n.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a plurality of steps of a computer-implemented edge-aware kernel blurring method, in accordance with some embodiments of the present specification. In an embodiment, the method generates a blurred heatmap by applying an n×n edge-aware kernel to a heatmap image or gridded data (associated with a game map of a video game) generated using the method of FIG. 5.

At step 1305, a mask is generated based on a view such as, but not limited to, a top-down view or image of the game map, wherein the mask defines non-masked areas that are accessible to players and masked areas that are not accessible to players. At step 1310, a kernel of n×n elements is selected, wherein the elements have respective weights that define a blur effect.

At step 1315, a center element of the kernel is positioned on a target pixel of the heatmap. At step 1320, if the center element is part of the masked areas then a pixel value of the target pixel is not used to calculate a smoothed value for the center element. At step 1325, if an element of a plurality of elements surrounding the center element falls in the masked areas then a pixel value corresponding to the element is not used and also values of pixels adjacent to the element are not used to calculate the smoothed value for the center element, wherein the pixels adjacent to the element are not part of any of the plurality of elements surrounding the center element.

At step 1330, if an element of a plurality of elements surrounding the center element falls in the non-masked areas then a pixel value corresponding to the element is used and also values of non-masked pixels adjacent to the element are used to calculate the smoothed value for the center element.

Finally, at step 1335, if all n×n elements fall in the non-masked areas then all elements of the kernel contribute to the calculation of the smoothed value for the center element.

In some embodiments, the n×n kernel is the 5×5 kernel 800 of FIG. 8. In some embodiments, the n×n kernel is a 3×3 kernel. In some embodiments, the n×n kernel is a 7×7 kernel.

In the description and claims of the application, each of the words “comprise” “include” and “have”, and forms thereof, are not necessarily limited to members in a list with which the words may be associated.

The above examples are merely illustrative of the many applications of the system and method of present specification. Although only a few embodiments of the present specification have been described herein, it should be understood that the present specification might be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the specification. Therefore, the present examples and embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the specification may be modified within the scope of the appended claims. 

I claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method of applying a blur operation to a heatmap associated with a game map to generate a visually displayable blurred heatmap, said heatmap including a plurality of pixels, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more game performance metrics of a player, said method comprising: generating a mask representative of a top down image of the game map, wherein the mask defines first areas that are accessible to the player and second areas that are not accessible to the player; defining a data structure comprised of n×m elements, wherein each of said n×m elements has a weight associated therewith; and executing the blurring operation on the at least the portion of the plurality of pixels to generate the visually displayable blurred heatmap by: positioning a first element of the n×m elements on a target pixel of the heatmap; determining whether the first element is part of the first areas or the second areas of the mask; and using a value associated with the target pixel and whether the first element is part of the first areas or the second areas of the mask to determine a smoothed value for the first element.
 2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising: generating a value for each of the n×m elements surrounding the first element depending on whether each of said n×m elements is part of the first areas or the second areas; and using a value associated with a pixel corresponding to each of the n×m elements surrounding the first element to determine the smoothed value for the first element.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein if each of said n×m elements surrounding the first element is part of the second areas, determining the smoothed value for the first element without using values associated with pixels corresponding to each of said n×m elements surrounding the first element.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein if a first one of said n×m elements is part of the second areas, determining the smoothed value for the first element without using values of pixels adjacent to said first one of said n×m elements.
 5. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein if a first one of said n×m elements is part of the second areas, determining the smoothed value for the center element without using values of pixels adjacent to said first one of said n×m elements provided that the pixels adjacent to said first one of said n×m elements do not correspond to elements adjacent to said first element.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein if each one of said n×m elements is part of the first areas, determining the smoothed value for the first element using pixel values corresponding to each one of said n×m elements.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein if none of said n×m elements are part of the second areas, determining the smoothed value for the first element using each of the n×m elements.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein n is in a range of 3 to 7, m is in a range of 3 to 7, and m is equal to n.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein said data structure is a Gaussian kernel.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: recording data representative of a plurality of events in a video game, wherein said plurality of events occur at one or more coordinates within said game map of said video game; dividing said game map into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map from said game map, wherein the secondary map has a lower resolution than said game map; generating performance metrics based on said data and assigning said generated performance metrics to at least one of said plurality of subsections based on said one or more coordinates; and forming the heatmap by generating a non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics and overlaying said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics on said secondary map, wherein a location of said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics is based on at least one of said plurality of subsections to which said generated performance metrics was assigned.
 11. A system for applying a blur operation to a heatmap comprising a plurality of pixels and associated with a game map to generate a visually displayable blurred heatmap wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics, said system comprising: a mask representative of a top down image of the game map, wherein the mask defines at least a first area that is accessible to players and at least a second area that is not accessible to players and wherein a color of the first area is different than a color of the second area; a data structure comprised of n×m elements, wherein each of said n×m elements has a weight associated therewith; and a processor in a computing device, said processor executing a plurality of executable programmatic instructions to apply the blurring operation on at least the portion of the plurality of pixels by applying the data structure to the mask, modifying the data structure based on whether at least a portion of the n×m elements is positioned in the first area or in the second area, and applying the modified data structure to the heatmap to generate the visually displayable blurred heatmap.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein applying the data structure to the mask comprises: positioning a first element of the data structure on a target pixel of the heatmap; determining whether the first element is part of the first area or the second area of the mask; and determining if said each element is part of the first area or the second area for each element in the data structure surrounding the first element.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein modifying the data structure comprises: using a value associated with the target pixel to determine a smoothed value for the first element based on determining whether the first element is part of the first area or the second area of the mask; and using a value associated with a pixel corresponding to said each element to determine a smoothed value for the first element based on determining whether said each element is part of the first area or the second area of the mask.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein if said each element is part of the second area, the smoothed value for the first element is determined without using the value associated with the pixel corresponding to said each element.
 15. The system of claim 13, wherein if said each element is part of the second area, the smoothed value for the first element is determined without using values of pixels adjacent to said each element.
 16. The system of claim 13, wherein if said each element is part of the second area, the smoothed value for the first element is determined without using values of pixels adjacent to said each element, provided that the pixels adjacent to said each element do not correspond to elements adjacent to said first element.
 17. The system of claim 13, wherein if said each element is part of the first area, the smoothed value for the first element is determined using a pixel value corresponding to said each element and using values of non-masked pixels adjacent to said each element.
 18. The system of claim 13, wherein if none of said n×m elements are part of the second area, the smoothed value for the first element is determined using the weights of each of the n×m elements.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein n is in a range of 3 to 7, m is in a range of 3 to 7, and m is equal to n.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein said data structure is a Gaussian kernel.
 21. The system of claim 13, wherein generating the visually displayable blurred heatmap comprises: recording data representative of a plurality of events in a video game, wherein said plurality of events occur at one or more coordinates within said game map; dividing said game map into a plurality of subsections to form a secondary map from said game map, wherein the secondary map has a lower resolution than said game map; generating performance metrics based on said data and assigning said generated performance metrics to at least one of said plurality of subsections based on said one or more coordinates; and forming said blurred heatmap by generating a non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics and overlaying said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics on said secondary map, wherein a location of said non-alphanumeric visual representation of said performance metrics is based on at least one of said plurality of subsections to which said generated performance metrics was assigned.
 22. A computer readable non-transitory medium comprising a plurality of executable programmatic instructions wherein, when said plurality of executable programmatic instructions are executed by a processor in a computing device, a process for applying a blur operation to a heatmap is performed to generate a blurred heatmap, said heatmap being associated with a game map and including a plurality of pixels, wherein at least a portion of the plurality of pixels is associated with one or more values corresponding to one or more performance metrics, said plurality of executable programmatic instructions comprising: programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for generating a mask representative of a top down image of the game map, wherein the mask defines at least a first area that is accessible to players and at least a second area that is not accessible to players and wherein a visual characteristic of the first area is different than a visual characteristic of the second area; programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, for defining a data structure comprised of n×m elements, wherein each of said n×m elements has a weight associated therewith; and programmatic instructions, stored in said computer readable non-transitory medium, to apply the blurring operation on at least the portion of the plurality of pixels by: applying the data structure to the mask; modifying the data structure based on whether at least a portion of the n×m elements is positioned in the first area or in the second area; and, applying the modified data structure to the heatmap to generate the visually displayable blurred heatmap. 